The Home of Andy Pokrivnak and #Andy

#NoAIRy – The First One

First things first. As always, I’m trying to find a way to make myself sit down and write. The current scheme: A week in review every-ish Monday or Tuesday! No one has ever done that. Not to mention with a horrible name like #NoAIRy.

So let’s break it down:# – Hashtag. That’s what I do. It’s in my name.AIR – Andy In Reviewy – AIRY… ANDY… They start and end with the same letters! Get it?No –

Also, it sorta sounds like Film Noir…y. Better name suggestions are obviously welcome.

Anyway, onto the content. I consume a bunch of things on a daily basis, from articles to podcasts to YouTube videos to TV shows, and often end up going down rabbit holes that lead me to…. crazy, crazy things. In about 1000 words a week, I’m going to talk about them.

TV

Horace and Pete – 11 months ago, the incomparable Louis CK sent an e-mail to his mailing list saying in essence, “HEY! I made a TV show! Watch it.” I’ve been meaning to watch it all year. Last month, the esteemed critic Alan Sepinwall made it his Number 1 show of 2016. I finally started watching it over Christmas and have finished 5 of the 10 episodes. Simply unique. Unique is one of those words that are thrown around too often these days. It applies here. A filmed play for television (there is literally a card that says ‘Intermission’ that shows up for about 20 seconds in the middle of each episode), the acting is top notch, and the ability to take chances that actually stand out in this era of risk-taking television speaks volumes. Many good shows are off the wall. This one is so out of the norm, it stands out.

The Sopranos – Even though I consume a ton of TV, I somehow never watched it. The Wire is the best show of all time. Period. Hard stop. However, Sopranos is almost always listed in the pantheon. I’ve been slowly bingeing it in fits and spurts over the past year. I finally finished Season 4 and started Season 5. 4 was a bad season. Janice is a horrible character that drags the show down. It ended well. It has too many downsides to supplant The Wire, but when I finish another 28 episodes, it will almost certainly be in my Top 10.

House Hunters – Yeah, I said it. I despise this show because the complaints are always the most asinine ever. “Well, it has all the features I want in the location I want, BUT the porch has a swing and I wanted a hammock, so I’m instead going to go with this other house that barely meets my criteria.” However the following factors coalesced: 1) I’ve been looking for a house for over a year now. 2) I found out there was a moderately recent episode based in Orlando. 3) I had some sort of promotional credit for Amazon Digital Video, so it only cost 99 cents.

She wanted to be close to downtown, have a modern kitchen, more sqft than her current 1300sqft house, and stay within her 180k budge. Spoiler: She bought this house. It’s on the other side of the 417.

Under Blatt, James had a habit of talking directly to the team during timeouts, but Lue shut that down, reportedly at one point saying, “Shut the f— up, I got this.”

YouTube

Everyone remembers the Seinfeld where Kramer is on Murphy Brown. Apparently to pay it back, Jerry and Larry David went on a CBS show I’ve never heard of named Love & War, which was created by the same person as Murphy Brown (Diane English).

Vogue is doing some crazy thing where they ask celebrities an insane number of questions. It’s largely stupid, although Neil Patrick Harris tries his best to keep the entertainment up while giving a tour of his INCREDIBLE house in Harlem. However, the first minute or so needs to be watched solely to see his “trophy room” / office. An entire shelf of Emmys and the booth from HIMYM? Alright, NPH, you win.

As most anyone that knows me would tell you, I would gladly trade all I have if I could be a performer or work in television… and get paid well. Fun fact: Good luck with that. However this awesome split-screen video of the director of the Tony’s super-imposed with NPH’s opening number from 2013 is breathtaking and reminds me how fun Live TV is to be a part of.

Not technically YouTube, but someone jumped off of the 22nd floor of my building. That deserves an embed.

This Week’s Topical Trivia Team Name

George Michael’s Last Christmas.
(Not original, but had to be done.)

Rabbit Hole Discovery of the Week

The City of Orlando Land Development Code has a defined minimum and maximum parking for putt-putt courses within the city limits.

This means that for a standard 18-hole putt-putt course, you must have at least 20 parking spaces, but not more than 33.